The Things that Fell Between the Cracks
by gracelesslire
Summary: When a new breed of enemy appears before Sora and his friends, Sora's troubles are just beginning. Having lost something very important, Sora is forced into a journey alone while his friends search for a way to help him as they also deal with the mysterious creatures invading the worlds. Takes place sometime after KH:3Ds and features Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, and Axel/Lea
1. Prologue

Prologue

No Burden Heavier to Bear than a Tired Heart

The beast turned back for another pass at Sora's exposed head. It shrieked in a shrill tone, its dull red body flaking as if it was covered in dry blood as its wings pumped frantically to keep it aloft.

Sora drew his arm back and launched his keyblade at the aerial creature. The silver blade sliced through the beast's wings, dropping it to the ground where it twitched for only a moment before stilling. His keyblade flew on, powered by the strength of his throw, but Sora wasn't watching it anymore; he was already searching for his next target. The keyblade would return, it always did, and as he raised his left hand, calling forth fire to burn yet another of the blood-stained creatures, a shimmer of light in his right hand signified the return of his keyblade.

As the beast he had burned collapsed to the ground in a fiery mess, more came to take its place. They were creatures of all shapes and sizes, some were reminiscent of insects and still others had a vaguely human shape to them. Sora wasn't sure what they were, but it was obvious to him that they were enemies of some sort, and that was something he could deal with.

He wasn't entirely sure where he was, but he also didn't seem to think his lack of knowledge was worth worrying about. He was in some sort of vague, shapeless place. A ubiquitous light illuminated everything so thoroughly even the shadows were washed away. Despite that, Sora wouldn't have said his surroundings lacked darkness. It frustrated him as he tried to find the right way to describe it, and eventually he realized that it was less about there being light and more that he could see everything equally well.

The angered roar of one of the creatures that surrounded him dragged him out of his contemplation. Now really wasn't the time to be concerned about where he was. He needed to focus. He was surrounded on all sides by the beasts; there were too many to count easily, but not so many he felt hopelessly overwhelmed. Sora had fought numbers larger than this before, but that didn't mean he could let his guard down.

Sora caught sight of movement from his right side and dodged away before he even realized what he was doing. The massive paw of a cat-beast narrowly missed his shoulder. The paw alone was the size of a dinner plate, and Sora wasted a moment as he gave the giant paw and equally giant (and frankly rather fearsome)claws an uneasy stare. It wouldn't be good to be hit by something like that.

The cat-beast shoved its way closer to Sora, brushing aside its allies as if they weren't there in order to get another swipe at Sora, but this time the he was expecting its attack and was able to counter. Sora ducked under the paw and stepped in, toward the cat-beat's head. He raised his keyblade and swung with all his force up at the cat-beast. The keyblade dug into its head, leaving behind a trail of flaking, red dust and the smell of iron. To his surprise, once past the hard outer skin, the creature gave no resistance, and Sora realized as he cut his way through its upper jaw, that the creatures were hollow.

Sora jumped back as the beast collapsed. He hadn't watched the final moments of any of the other ones he had defeated; he had been too busy fending off more attacks, but the creatures were leaving him alone at the moment so he took the chance to watch what happened when they were killed.

The beast disappeared. It was there one moment, and simply gone the next, almost as if it had never been in the first place. What was left behind was simply more of the lightless-darklessness that surrounded him.

Sora shivered as a chill ran down his back. There was something so fundamentally wrong with what he had just seen that he hardly even knew what bothered him. He turned away from the spot where the cat-beast had been reduced to nothing, feeling a twinge of something in his chest, and turned to face the next attack from a flying, beeish creature.

Sora fended off the darting, piercing attacks, but his chest felt heavy and his legs were sluggish. It was hard to fight alone, he realized. He had always been supported in the past, even when he had been alone, he had always known there were those who believed in him and trusted him. But in this place, he couldn't feel any of that. The warmth that was always supporting him wasn't there, and he couldn't seem to remember what it had felt like.

Sora sliced through the bee and turned away quickly before he could see it vanish. He didn't want to feel that chill again, or the empty feeling that accompanied the sight.

He turned too quickly though and his legs gave out beneath him. He was tired. How long had he been fighting, here in this endless place? Sora couldn't remember, but for some reason it seemed like he had been here for far too long.

Sora dropped to one knee, and before he could recover one of the faster moving, human like creatures swung down what looked like a sword. Sora caught the red colored sword on the keyblade which he had raised above his head to defend. The blow wasn't strong enough to break his guard, but it was enough to keep him from rising to his feet, and it was enough to keep him from being able to defend against the attack that came from behind.

Sora saw it coming, the rush of red, though he never saw which creature it actually was. He couldn't stop it, and the pain was enough to make Sora collapse to the ground where he was immediately prey to countless more attacks. The pain that surged through his body was intense, but none of the attacks were enough to do more than cause pain.

The assault lasted for an unimaginable span of time; the attacks of the creatures around him were unceasing. As time passed, Sora found he could only think about the pain. Nothing else seemed to penetrate the surging waves of torment the emanated from each blow. Nothing, except for a single, instantly regrettable thought, a thought he had never imagined he would entertain. A thought he would forever wish he could forget.

_I want to disappear too._

As soon as he thought that, the attacks stopped. Sora raised his head; he had unconsciously curled into a ball while on the ground taking the repeated blows. His whole body ached, but he didn't understand why the creatures had stopped.

"Is this all a lone keyblade user can do?" an unfamiliar man's voice asked.

Sora saw the man's feet, clad in boots the same color as the beasts, enter his vision. The man bent down and Sora caught a glimpse of silvery eyes and dark hair. The man pulled at the keyblade in Sora's hand, and unwillingly, Sora let go. He was too tired and in too much pain to have much strength left. The man held Sora's keyblade in his hand carelessly and straightened.

Sora's gaze followed the man up. It was strange to see someone else holding the blade that Sora knew so well. Only a few people had ever taken the keyblade from him, and only Riku had ever been right to.

"It's an interesting weapon," the man said as he examined the keyblade with his strange, empty eyes. The blade glinted in the non-light that surrounded them, and the keychain swung gently from the end of the keyblade as the man held it aloft as if saluting some imaginary person.

The man chuckled and swung the keyblade back down, resting the tip of it on the ground just before Sora's face.

"I've heard it runs off of hearts or some such nonsense; what a weak source of power," the man said mockingly.

Sora wanted to shout back at the man. To explain that that wasn't the truth, to prove to him how strong hearts really were, but he was too weak. The fight had taken too much out of him and it was all he could do to keep his head up and glare at the man.

The man seemed to understand what he was thinking though. "It seems you disagree," he said, surprising Sora with his accurate response, and then he added, "No Sora, I can't read your mind; you're just simple to understand."

_How does he know me?_ Sora wondered. _Who is this person?_

The man knelt down so he was closer to Sora's face. With the distance between them closed, Sora could see that the man was young, a little older than Riku at most, and he was clad in the same, dark, reddish color as the beasts that still surrounded Sora. His face might even have been called handsome, but Sora couldn't feel anything from this man. It was as if he wasn't even there in the first place, as if what stood before Sora was simply more of the non-light that surrounded him.

"In that case, why don't we play a little game," the man said with a smile, but it was obviously not a suggestion or an invitation. The man hefted Sora's keyblade, holding it in front of Sora's face. "The prize will of course be your keyblade. The rules are simple; you just have to take it from me." The man paused and then smiled. "Can a keyblade wielder who has lost his keyblade still call himself as such?"

Panic seized Sora as he realized something. He tried to recall the keyblade that was just in front of him, but something stuck tight and wouldn't budge. The familiar light that accompanied the summoning of his keyblade, the light he had taken for granted, didn't appear. The strange man continued to hold onto Sora's keyblade with an ease that frightened Sora. His keyblade was close enough to touch if Sora just stretched his hand out, and yet, it was completely out of reach.

The man straightened, still holding onto Sora's keyblade and turned away.

"I look forward to seeing what your 'heart' can do," he said scornfully before he strode away and vanished.

Sora felt it when his keyblade disappeared with the man. It was a feeling akin to having all the warmth leave his body, like having the breath knocked from his chest and not being able to get it back no matter how long he tried. It was painful, and sad, and overwhelmingly lonely.


	2. Chapter 1: Starting in Different Places

**Author Note: This the first real chapter for The Things that Fell Between the Cracks (which is too long to type by the way, so I'm abbreviating it to TTHBC) This takes place sometime after KH: 3ds so if you haven't played it expect some minor spoilers, sorry. I won't be dealing with Xehanhort at all though, so there won't be anything huge. This is basically an alternate adventure, a sort of interlude between 3ds and KH3. **

Chapter 1

Starting in Different Places

The smell of the salty sea air drifted on the wind. It was an inescapable smell of the islands, and though Riku had once hated it, now he realized that it was the smell of home, an irreplaceable smell.

Some things changed as time passed; Riku's feelings towards the small islands he had been born on were one. He no longer felt trapped here; rather he felt that the Destiny Islands were a place of safety, a place where he belonged.

There some things that never changed though, and he was currently looking at the perfect example. Sora was sleeping on the beach again, softly snoring as he dozed the afternoon away.

"Hey, wake up," Riku called softly as he stood over his friend.

He wasn't sure how Sora could actually sleep on the beach. Not only was the sand annoying, but when the tide came in the beach would be covered in water, and Riku wasn't really sure if Sora would wake up before he was washed out to sea.

Sora continued to sleep. Apparently being nice was going to cut it. Annoyed at his friend, Riku scooped up a handful of seawater from the nearby rising tide and held it threateningly over Sora's face.

"What do you think you're doing?" a girl suddenly interrupted from far too close.

Riku jumped in surprise. Kairi had gotten sneaky lately, and though she claimed she didn't do it on purpose, she always seemed to surprise Riku from behind.

"Ah," Riku looked over at his hand and realized he had let the water fall from his hands when Kairi had startled him. "Oops," he said (not really feeling very guilty) as he looked at the water running down his, now very awake, friend's face.

"Why can't you wake me like a normal person?" Sora complained as he sat up and tried to wipe his face off. His hands were covered with sand though and the result only left him with a face full of sand.

Kairi laughed and then reached out to give Sora and hand up. He took her hand with a smile and stood. He carefully brushed the sand off his clothes and then raised his arms towards the sky as he stretched. The sand stuck to his face gave him a rough, barbaric look that was at complete odds with the innocent smile on his face.

"You looked like you were having a nice dream," Riku said wryly.

A strange expression crossed Sora's face. His eyes widened and his face tensed, only a moment later to be replaced by furrowed brows and a small frown. The changing expression lasted only a brief moment though, and then Sora was back to smiling. Kairi hadn't seemed to notice anything, but Riku felt uneasy.

"What's wrong?" Kairi asked as she looked between the two boys. "Um…hello?" she asked when neither of them responded immediately.

"Nothing's wrong," Sora replied, back to his usual cheerful self. He smiled at Riku and Kairi and then asked, "So…what's up?"

Riku and Kairi sighed, almost perfectly in sync. They shared a glance and Riku knew they were both thinking the same thing.

"What are we going to do with you?" Riku asked as shook his head.

"Oh come on," Sora said, whining only a little. "Don't gang up on me!" He looked over at Kairi, "Help me out here."

"How on earth can you forget that easily?" Kairi asked, but her stern question was ruined by the smile on her face. "Remember? School starts again soon, so we're going to make the most of our vacation and camp out for a few days out here."

"Thanks," Sora replied dryly. "Even I remember that. I meant, what I doing before I fell asleep…?"

He didn't turn to Riku or Kairi for answers this time, perhaps sensing that they were enjoying watching him struggle. As he thought, his face twisted into an image of deep thought, but Riku couldn't really imagine Sora having any deep thoughts. He cracked a smile, but at least was able to keep from laughing at his friend.

"Umm…" Sora continued to think, and after far longer than it should have taken a light bulb went off in his mind and he said, "Right, firewood. I was collecting firewood."

"And then you fell asleep instead," Riku said. He folded his arms and tried to look stern, but it was hard to scold Sora when he smiled.

"I did get some," Sora said. He looked around but couldn't seem to find the wood he was looking for.

"Is that it out there?" Kairi asked, pointing at a brown shape floating in the water.

Riku and Sora both looked to where she was pointing, and sure enough, the wood Sora had collected was drifting away from the island, pulled by the tide.

"Ah, no, come back," Sora called out feebly, stretching out a hand toward the quickly vanishing logs. "Darn," he said, his shoulders slumping as they disappeared from sight.

"Cheer up Sora," Kairi said with a smile. "Riku and I are already finished; we can help gather up the wood. If we work quickly we'll be done before it gets dark."

"Thanks Kairi," Sora said, smiling once again.

He was so quick to recover. It was one of the things Riku liked best about Sora, though he didn't intend to ever tell Sora that.

Still, "What makes you think I want to help?" Riku asked, frowning at his two friends.

Sora turned a pleading look on Riku, his blue eyes almost as wide and innocent as a puppy's. It was too much to take and Riku waved his hands in front of his face signaling his surrender.

"Alright, I give," Riku laughed. "Let's just hurry and get this done with."

Sora nodded and dashed off, probably worried that if he lingered any longer he would risk losing Riku's help. Kairi followed close behind him, shouting to Sora where she had seen some fallen branches and dried driftwood that work well for a fire.

Riku headed in the other direction. It didn't have to be wood, and in fact, for starting a fire he had something even better in mind. The palm fronds that dropped from the trees that lined the beach would make for a perfect fire starter.

Riku hurried over to the first of the trees, but as he reached up to grab one of the dead, dry fronds, a familiar chill ran down his back. Riku froze and looked behind him. There was no one on the beach other than himself, Kairi and Sora were long out of sight, and certainly nothing out of place, but the warm and sunny beach suddenly seemed cold and forbidding to him.

He stared out at the water and recalled the strange expression on Sora's face from earlier. Had he sensed something? Riku doubted it; he couldn't say that Sora was the most sensitive of people. To Riku though, the chill was something familiar, but it wasn't the achingly familiar feel of darkness. This was something different.

Something bad.

* * *

The king raced up the long, winding flights of stairs, taking them as quickly as he could. His tail twitched impatiently behind him, and not for the first time he was reminded of the impracticality of Master Yen Sid's tower.

At long last though, Mickey reached the top of the tower, entering the office of his old teacher after giving a respectful knock on the door. It was an emergency though so he didn't wait for a reply; he simply entered, knowing that Yen Sid was waiting for him inside.

Mickey wasn't entirely certain what was wrong, but the message he had received had conveyed an urgency that was quiet unlike the former keyblade master. Yen Sid wasn't a doddering old man, far from it in fact, but neither was he one to plunge into something with all haste.

"Mickey," Yen Sid said as the king entered the room, "I'm glad you could come on such short notice."

The sorcerer was facing away from Mickey, gazing out one of his astral shaped windows at the clouds that shrouded the tower, hiding it from the gaze of darkness. As Mickey entered the austere office, Yen Sid turned, his blue robes brushing against the ground softly. His expression was pensive, worried even, and that more than anything alarmed Mickey.

"I'm more than happy to help anytime," Mickey replied as he stopped before the room's large desk.

Yen Sid shook his head. "It grieves me that I must rely on you once more. I had intended to let you and the others rest for a time, but alas, I'm afraid your well-earned rest will have to wait."

"Did you call Riku and Sora as well?" Mickey asked. The letter had mentioned that he should come alone, and though it had been difficult to leave his two closest friends behind, he had convinced them to stay and guard the castle.

"Not yet," Yen Sid replied. "I hope to solve this issue without their involvement."

Yen Sid walked back to his desk, but to Mickey it seemed he strode there. Yen Sid always moved with such purpose and dignity that Mickey was sometimes hard pressed to remember who in the room actually was a king.

"Why?" Mickey asked. "If you asked I'm sure Sora would be happy to help."

"Indeed, I have no doubt that boy would rush to our aid at any time," Yen Sid replied as he stroked his long gray beard. "However, I fear we may have been unfairly relying on his strength for far too long, and even he has his limits."

Mickey shook his head, but he wasn't disagreeing with the sorcerer. He simply didn't understand why Yen Sid felt that way. Yen Sid was someone Mickey respected beyond all others, and he understood the way the worlds, both dark and light, worked far better than Mickey did. Mickey would trust Yen Sid's judgment.

"I understand this may be difficult for you to accept, Mickey," Yen Sid continued. He seemed to be completely aware of Mickey's internal dilemma, "I ask that you trust me on this and not let your feelings drag Sora into this."

"If that's what you think would be for the best," Mickey replied, his large ears drooping ever so slightly. It wasn't like him to be depressed though, and after just a moment he was looking at Yen Sid with determination once more. "Why did you call me here? Is it the heartless again?"

"I'm afraid it is not," Yen Sid replied. He frowned and tapped a finger on the desk. "I have discovered something rather…unsettling. It seems the worlds are once more under assault from some kind of enemy."

"An enemy?" Mickey repeated in thoughtful voice. "What kind of enemy?"

Yen Sid shook his head, a ponderous movement that seemed all the more certain for its slow speed.

"I admit that I have yet to fully understand them. I only know that they take the form of blood red, misshapen creatures. " Yen Sid replied. "However, I fear they may cause much harm if left unchecked."

The grave words worried Mickey, but he trusted that Yen Sid would eventually figure everything out. He had been supporting Mickey since long ago, and Mickey knew he could continue to count on him in the future.

"I wish for you to go to one of the worlds where these creatures have appeared and investigate," Yen Sid said. "Find out as much as you can about where they came from and what they intend to do."

Mickey nodded. This was something he could do. He hated waiting while others did all the work. He was a mouse of action, and even if Minnie didn't appreciate that it took him away from the castle so often, Mickey had never been able to resist helping those who needed it.

"I understand, Master Yen Sid," Mickey said. "I'll do my best."

"Ah, and one more thing," Yen Sid said. "I'm sending someone with you to help with the investigation."

Mickey wasn't sure if it had been planned or if it was simply chance, but at that moment, the door opened revealing a familiar figure. The red headed man who stood in the doorway had once been an enemy, but now he had a new name and had already proven to be a strong alley.

"Lea!" Mickey gasped in surprise. "You're comin' too?"

Lea smiled, and stretched his hand out. A burst of flame colored light enveloped his hand, and when it vanished, the man was holding a keyblade in his hand.

"I'm still getting used to this whole 'keyblade' thing, so I'll tag along and see what I can't figure out," Lea replied.

Mickey nodded. "Good to be working with you," he replied.

Mickey turned back to Yen Sid. The sorcerer was watching them with concern plain on his face. Was he so bothered by his lack of knowledge about the new enemies?

"Don't worry," Lea said, noticing the same thing Mickey had seen. He gave a broad smile, "I'll make sure he comes back safe and sound. Just tell me where we need to go."

* * *

Sora couldn't sleep. Kairi and Riku were both sleeping soundly, wrapped up in their sleeping bags inside the beach house, but Sora couldn't do the same. It was irritating for some reason, listening to the sounds of slow breathing from his two friends while his own sleep remained elusive.

He was normally a good sleeper, a fact that Riku frequently reminded him of. Tonight was different, and Sora wondered if it had anything to do with that dream from earlier when he had been napping on the beach.

He didn't remember much about the dream. Only that, while he had been dreaming, he had thought it was real. He remembered pain and fear, and loneliness. He remembered a voice asking to play a game, but he didn't remember who it was that said it, and he didn't remember why it bothered him so much.

He knew it had been a weird dream, and now that he thought about it, the last time Sora had slept on that same beach he had had a weird dream. He was sure it was just a coincidence, but it was still strange enough to bother him.

Eventually, his thoughts plaguing him like an incessant swarm of flies, Sora decided to give up on sleep. He slowly and quietly crawled out of his sleeping bag and left the little beach house. The outside air was chilly, but Sora didn't mind that.

The island was completely dark at night. A faint light on the horizon marked where the nearest island was, but other than that, the only light came from the moon and stars.

Sora looked up at the sky as he walked across the little bridge that led to his favorite tree, the one that hung over the water at just the right height to be a perfect seat, and not for the first time marveled at what he was seeing.

Back then, as Sora had begun calling the time before he left the island in his mind, he had stared up at the stars and seen only that, stars. They were pretty, but nothing special. They just floated there and twinkled.

It was different now, like so many other things were. When Sora looked up at the stars now, what he saw weren't indifferent points of light that existed only to provide meager illumination for a sleepless boy. Those were his friends up there, or to be more precise, they were the homes of his friends.

Sora stretched out his hand, reaching up toward the stars. He knew though, no matter how much he stretched, it wasn't such a simple thing to reach the other worlds. Though from where Sora sat now they seemed to be separated by only a sliver of darkness, the truth was far different.

A boundless distance separated those stars; a distance that was supposed to be un-crossable. He himself was proof that the distance could be crossed, that the worlds could be connected. Riku and Kairi were the same. Like him they had visited those stars and made friends in different places.

Sora had heard that the world hadn't always been like that. At one point, those little specks of light had been tied firmly together as one world. Forces too powerful for the world to handle had torn it apart though, and the result was the world that existed now.

_I wonder if they realized what they had done_, Sora thought as he dropped his hand back down. _Did they know how thoroughly they would break the world? _

Sora shook his head to clear himself of the gloomy thoughts. He couldn't imagine what it would have been like to have the worlds that were now scattered about be one. He liked the worlds he saw before his eyes, and he treasured the times he had spent in each one.

As Sora watched the dark sky, a flash of light caught his eye.

"A falling star?" he whispered into the darkness as his eyes traced the falling arc of light.

It didn't disappear, though Sora had expected the streaking light to last only a moment like most falling stars. This one continued to fall, and fall, and it began to grow rather large and bright in the sky.

Sora stood in alarm. Through he knew distances could be deceiving, the shooting star certainly looked like it was falling straight toward him and the island. The star continued to plummet, though by now it was less a star, and more a reddish glow of light. Sora felt sick looking at it.

Sora had no time to truly react to what he was seeing, in only a moment, the falling object, definitely no longer a star, had crashed down into the sea just off the shore of the island. Sora stared at the water, surging from the impact, and watched as the red glow disappeared beneath the waves.

"Awesome," he whispered.

_Riku is never going to believe me when I tell him tomorrow,_ was his last thought before everything went wrong.

**So that's chapter 1. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions or comments please let me know. I don't quite have a regular schedule worked out yet, but the next chapter will be up within the next 3-6 days or so.**


	3. Chapter 2: Only Lost things Can be Found

**Author's Note: So here we have chapter 2, in which things actually begin to happen. I'm not so great at writing notes or anything because I can't remember what I was thinking when I wrote this, oops. Well, hopefully you enjoy the chapter, and thanks for reading!  
**

Chapter 2

Only Lost Things Can be Found

Lea had been teamed up with a lot of weird guys in the past. Most of the people in the Organization, even the ones he had liked, were definitely not what he would have called normal, but he had to admit that his current partner took the cake.

Maybe it was because he was a mouse. No, no, that was wrong. Lea shouldn't be judging someone based on their appearances, based on _what_ they were. Hadn't he learned that during his time as a Nobody?

But even if you removed Mickey's mousiness from the equation, he was still odd. According to Sora and Riku, Mickey was the king of his world. However, Lea wasn't sure how a king could get involved in this mess of keyblades, darkness, and worlds. What was he doing? Traveling the worlds and fighting off evil was no job for a ruler.

He was also one of the most positive people Lea had ever met. He even rivaled Sora in optimism (a feat Lea hadn't really thought possible until he talked to Mickey) but also possessed a seriousness that was at odds with his normally cheerful demeanor.

At the moment, Mickey was looking about at the dry and dusty surroundings they found themselves in. Lea had visited Agrabah before with Roxas, but he wasn't sure if his current companion had ever been here.

The city was a place of low, brown buildings, the only color came from the clothes worn by those who wandered the streets. It was hot, and the sun was bright, and Lea didn't really want to have to mingle with the people in the streets.

"Did Yen Sid tell you what we were looking for exactly?" Lea asked as he leaned against the wall of the narrow alley they were currently hiding in.

Lea might have been able to disguise himself by wearing clothing that matched the style of this world, but there was no way Mickey would blend in. If it had been a different world it might have been possible, but not here. They would have to do their best to stay hidden and avoid drawing attention.

Mickey shook his head. "No, but I'm sure we'll know it when we see it."

Lea sighed. So they would simply have to search the city, and possibly even the desert, by themselves and hope they found it.

"Let's start on the roofs," Lea suggested as he pointed up. "That should keep us out of the crowds and let us see more of the city."

"Alright," Mickey said, "Let's get goin'."

Without another word, the agile mouse bounded up to the roof top above them, using only the gaps in the stone walls and the windows to get to the top. Lea followed him up, easily making his way to the roof. Without any heartless around to bother him, it was a simple feat to traverse the city.

Lea and Mickey made their way through the city, watching the streets below for any sign of strange activity. No one on the ground noticed their presence above, and Lea didn't see anything out of the ordinary in the city.

Just about when Lea was ready to suggest another course of action, Mickey stopped him, his ears turned forward.

"What's wro-" Lea began to ask, but he was silenced by Mickey.

"Do you hear that?" Mickey asked. He turned to Lea with a serious expression on his face.

Lea tilted his head to the side as he listened hard, but he didn't hear anything out of the ordinary.

"No," he replied. "Is there something?"

"I can hear someone shouting over there," Mickey said. He pointed off to their left.

"Well, then," Lea said, his mood improving immediately. "Let's go take a look, shall we?"

* * *

The beast was large and red. Those were the first things Mickey noticed when he saw the creature that had cornered a young woman in an open courtyard.

At first glance, the creature resembled an elephant, but rather than the thick, stocky legs one would expect on a creature that size, the beast had thin, spindly legs that tapered down into fine points. It defied logic; there was no way it should have been able to stand on those legs, not with the large, bulbous body they were supporting.

There was also the matter of its red appearance. Though it was simple enough to identify the color of the beast, a rusty red that resembled old, dried blood, what was strange was the flaky and rough appearance of its skin. As the creature moved, surging forward on needle thin legs, parts of its skin flaked off, but rather than fall downwards as gravity dictated, the red pieces floated upwards into the air, disintegrating as they rose into nothingness.

"What the…" Lea muttered as he watched the creature. "What kind of monster is that?"

"I don't know," Mickey said firmly. "But we've gotta stop it."

Mickey held out his hand and called upon his keyblade. A light flashed in his hand and it appeared. He looked over at Lea, ready to tell him to prepare, but the former Nobody was already holding his own flame-red keyblade.

Lea and Mickey looked at each other, and Lea's brilliant green eyes gleamed with a determination Mickey could approve of. Though he trusted Lea, Mickey hadn't been sure what fighting alongside the man would be like, but from the look in Lea's eyes, Mickey knew there would be no issues.

"Let's go," Lea said, with a hint of excitement in his voice.

He dropped down from the roof just before Mickey and landed just behind the beast. Mickey followed, taking up a battle stance that contrasted with Lea's loose posture.

"Hey, big guy," Lea shouted as he pointed at the monster. "Don't you think you should find some more enjoyable prey?"

Mickey glanced at Lea in slight surprise. Was he really taunting the creature? For that matter, would it even understand him? Mickey didn't know if it truly did understand Lea or not, but the monster did indeed stop moving forward. It twisted its head back around to look at the two interlopers, and then slowly turned to face him.

"Hurry up and run," Mickey called out to the woman. "We'll stop it here."

The woman rose to her feet, her long, dark hair swaying behind her. Though she was obviously frightened, Mickey could see a strength in her eyes as she quickly hurried to get away. She didn't hesitate, seemingly trusting the two strangers who had appeared to save her.

"That's more like it," Lea was saying in the meantime. "Come over here and let's play."

The beast had turned around fully now, and it set its sights on the two who stood before it. Lea finally readied himself for battle, and then, without any forewarning, he charged the beast.

His sudden movement shocked Mickey, and the mouse found himself starting a moment later and being several steps behind. That delay saved Mickey because the moment Lea began charging forward, the Spindly Elephant swung its trunk at a speed almost impossible to follow, slamming it into Lea's chest.

The impact threw Lea across the courtyard where he slammed into a hard, stone wall. Mickey couldn't spare a thought to check if he was safe though. He was too busy avoiding the trunk's equally speedy return.

Mickey launched himself into the air above the trunk, narrowly avoiding it, and landed on top of the elephant's head. Without even a moment of hesitation, he swung his keyblade down, aiming for the space between the elephant's eyes.

His keyblade struck with a furious cracking sound and bounced off the hard shell that surrounded the Spindly Elephant. It trumpeted in pain, stomping its tiny feat and trying to shake Mickey off, but the blow had done nothing to the creature.

Mickey frowned and jumped back off the elephant. It was too dangerous to stay up there while the creature was rampaging about.

"Did you get it?" a slightly woozy voice called out.

Mickey looked over to see Lea standing once more, shaking his head and swaying slightly.

"It has some sort of shell on it," Mickey replied. "Like an insect or something. It's gonna be hard to break through that."

Lea smiled grimly and swung his keyblade before him. Little sparks of fire followed the path his keyblade carved through the air.

"Even insects burn," he said with an even wider smile. "Let's see if we can scorch this monster a bit."

Lea raced forward once more, but this time he was careful to dodge the swinging trunk and the sharp points of the stamping feat. As he neared the monster, Lea lowered his body and gathered his strength. In one, fluid movement he brought his keyblade up with enough power to cut through the Spindly Elephant's stomach and side.

A trail of fire erupted behind the keyblade's path, and for a moment Mickey thought it was the keyblade itself doing that but then he noticed the fire gathered around Lea's hand and realized that the man was following his keyblade strike with a fire spell.

_I can't let him to do this alone,_ Mickey thought as he once more moved forward to engage the enemy.

The elephant was crying out in pain, its trunk thrashing back and forth, and it was trying to kick Mickey with its front legs as he approached. Mickey dodged the trunk and blocked one of the legs with his gold and silver keyblade as he spun around to avoid the last leg.

The spindly elephant's body was too high for Mickey to reach, so instead he leapt up once more, landing this time on the elephant's back. As he did, Lea was just finishing his strike and backing away from the elephant once more.

"Finish it off," Lea called out in a triumphant tone.

Mickey didn't need to be told to do so. He had already raised his keyblade in preparation for calling forth magic. He summoned ice, directing it toward the open wound on the Elephant's side. As he did, he got a short glimpse of what the wound had revealed of the elephant's insides before the ice froze the creature solid.

Nothing. There was nothing inside the hard shell that made up the Spindly Elephant's surface. It was simply an empty carapace. Mickey was surprised, but he couldn't let that stop him from finishing his job.

Mickey brought down his keyblade once more in a powerful strike, focusing on the fracture lines that had appeared from the combined efforts of Lea's strike and Mickey's magic. His blow was strong, and it easily cracked open the fractures on the creatures back.

With a mighty groan, the creature began to collapse and Mickey leapt off in a hurry. He looked back over his shoulder, watching as the Spindly Elephant collapsed to the ground, stilled, and then vanished.

Of all the things, perhaps that was the most surprising. The Spindly Elephant was simply gone, as if it had never been there in the first place. As if it had never existed to begin with.

Mickey faced Lea and saw the surprise he felt mirrored on the man's face. He wasn't sure how to explain what had just happened, and neither was Lea it seemed.

"Impressive," a voice Mickey didn't recognize suddenly said from above them.

Mickey and Lea immediately looked up. Someone was standing above them on one of the buildings that surrounded the little courtyard. The man was positioned just in front of the blazing sun, making it impossible for those below him to make out more than his figure.

"I certainly didn't expect you to best it so quickly," the man said in a pleasant voice that was at odds with the situation.

"Who are you?" Mickey demanded, he fell once more into a battle stance, holding his keyblade at the ready.

"Calm down, your Majesty," the man said in a mocking voice. "I didn't come here to fight. Not today at least. I'm not interested in fighting against the two of you anyway."

"Why don't you come down here and say that," Lea growled at the man. "What was that thing?"

"That 'thing' as you so cleverly put it," the man began, and Mickey could swear he could hear a smile in his voice, "is something that doesn't exist in this world. Or rather, it is something that isn't allowed to exist in this world."

"Not allowed to exist?" Mickey asked. "What does that mean?"

"Why don't you try thinking about it first?" the man replied haughtily. "I'm just here to…direct your attention."

Mickey glanced at Lea, but his companion seemed at just as much of a loss as himself.

"Direct it towards what?" Lea asked. "Who the hell are you?"

"This isn't the only world my friends are in, you know?" the man said, ignoring Lea's second question completely. It was strange; despite his obviously superior and condescending attitude, Mickey couldn't detect any true hostility in the man's voice. Still, without being able to see the expressions on the man, as he continued to be obscured by the sun behind him, Mickey wasn't sure he could trust any assumptions he made.

"What other worlds have they invaded?" Mickey asked.

"Hmm…by now?" the man seemed to ponder it a moment, but Mickey had a feeling he was just toying with them. "Too many to list easily, but I think there is one in particular you might want to concern yourself with. After all, it's the home of _your _dear friends."

The way he spoke, Mickey was certain he wasn't talking about only one of them. The comment was directed at the both of them, and there was only one person that Mickey could think of that might fit the role of "dear friend" for the both of them.

Lea had apparently come to the same conclusion. "Sora," he muttered. But then he just laughed and said, "You think Sora would lose to something like this? There's no way that could happen."

"And even if there was a problem," Mickey added, "Riku and Kairi are both there to back him up."

The man hidden by the sun chuckled, and for the first time during their conversation, Mickey was taken aback by chill that seemed to emanate from the man.

"Really, I think maybe you expect too much of that boy," he said. "Even the strongest of pillars can wear away. Do you think it's really alright to just let him solve all your problems for you?"

"We aren't just relying on him," Mickey protested.

He intended to add more, the man was really beginning to bother him, especially because his words so closely resembled those that Yen Sid had spoken only a short while ago, but Lea interrupted him.

"We need to get to the Destiny Islands," Lea said. "I'm not sure what this guy is getting at, but I have a bad feeling about all this."

Mickey glanced at Lea, surprised to see a serious scowl on his face. Lea was taking the man's words to heart, and though Mickey wasn't sure he believed them, he trusted Lea enough to go along with what he was saying. Besides, there was no way he could not go to Sora's and Riku's sides when he knew there was trouble.

"Right, let's go," Mickey said.

He looked back over at the man, but the man was gone. In a manner similar to the way the Spindly Elephant had disappeared, so too had the man seemingly vanished.

* * *

"-ku..Ri...ku," a voice pierced through the comfortable darkness of sleep. "Riku, wake up," the voice cut in more desperately.

Riku stirred and opened his eyes as Sora (because who else would it be?) continued to pester him.

" 's wrong?" Riku asked sleepily. He looked over at the beach house's window, it was still very much dark outside, but there was something odd about the scenery he was seeing.

"You have to get up," Sora said, and then Riku noticed the very un-Sora-like expression of seriousness on his friend's face.

Riku sat up in alarm, already trying to figure out what had happened to cause Sora to have an expression like that. As Sora moved to shake Kairi awake, Riku stood and took a better look out the window. There was some sort of strange, hazy, red light outside. It wasn't really bright enough to see by, but it tinged everything outside in a bloody color.

Kairi quickly woke, coming from sleep to wakefulness far faster than Riku had.

"Sora, what's wrong?" Kairi asked.

"Something…is attacking the island," Sora said. His expression said that that wasn't the best way to describe the situation, but he didn't have any better words to describe it with.

"Something?" Riku asked sharply. "The Heartless?"

Sora shook his head. "No," he replied. "I don't know what they are, but they aren't anything I've ever seen before."

At that moment, the little beach house shook violently as something tried to break down the front door. Riku looked over at his two friends and jerked his head toward the back door, the one that led to the bridge. For now, it would be best to avoid fighting whatever that thing pounding on the door was until they at least knew what it was. Kairi was also with them, and even if she could wield a keyblade, Riku didn't want to put her in danger.

Together they left the beach house, hurrying to the little bridge that over looked the island, and stopped to look back at what creatures swarming the beach.

In the dark, it was difficult to make out many details about the creatures, but they were each giving off a slight red glow. Most of them were large, at least the size of a person, and often even bigger than that, but otherwise their forms and traits were diverse. Several more flew about in the sky, screeching as they dove down amongst their fellows on the beach.

"Those…aren't Heartless," Kairi said as they stared at the creatures.

They hadn't been noticed yet, but Riku had a feeling it wouldn't be long before they were spotted by the red monsters on the beach.

"They aren't Nobodies either," Riku said.

Riku looked over at his friends; Kairi was staring at the creatures with a grim expression on her face. She was prepared to fight if need be, even he could see that. It was Sora who surprised him. His friend was pale, and though Riku supposed it could have been the strange, red light that made him look that way,Sora's face was tense and nervous.

"Sora, are you okay?" Riku asked. At his words, Kairi also looked at Sora who stood between them.

"I'm fine," Sora replied, sounding just like his normal self. His face relaxed and he returned to normal. "What should we do?" he asked. "Should we fight them all?"

Riku didn't immediately reply. He wasn't entirely sure what they should in a situation like this.

He spotted a creature on the ground that had seemed to notice them. It was beginning to head in their direction, but because they were still high above it on the bridge while it was on the beach below, Riku was worried just yet.

"Should we try to head back home?" Kairi asked, her voice sounded nervous. "What if they follow us?"

Riku and Sora looked at each other, but before either of them could say anything, Kairi let out a gasp and pointed to the sky.

"Here they come," she cried out.

The creature Kairi was pointing to was some sort of massive bird, and Riku was reminded of legends that talked of the giant bird called a Roc. Though he doubted these were one and the same, the similarities in size were more than enough for him to make a connection between the two.

It was too big actually, and as it dove towards them at an alarming speed, Riku realized that there was no possible way for them to dodge it while they were on the bridge.

"We have to jump down," Sora said, obviously coming to the same conclusion as Riku.

Riku and Kairi both nodded, and together, just before the Roc reached them, they leapt off the bridge and onto the sandy beach below. Riku and Sora had both made that same jump many times before when they played on the island, but Kairi never had and she slipped as she landed on the loose sand.

The creatures immediately noticed them, and high above, the Roc was screaming in frustration at losing its prey. As Sora helped Kairi up, Riku called forth his keyblade; Way to Dawn appeared in his hand with subtle spark of light and an equally subtle flare of darkness.

There was no time to make sure his friends were ready, the first of the creatures, an incredibly fast reptilian monster, had already reached Riku, and Riku found his hands full dealing with it. As more of the red monsters approached, Riku saw a flash of light out of the corner of his eye and then heard Kairi yell as she began to attack one of the creatures that had circled around Riku to reach his friends.

Riku focused on the lizard-like beast. With a whipish tail and sharp claws, the creature darted around, making it a difficult target to hit, but Riku used his experience of fighting in countless battles to predict where it was likely to move. It was still difficult, but Riku managed to end the battle quickly.

"Sora! What's wrong?" He heard Kairi say in a desperate voice from behind him.

Riku risked turning around, startled at the tone of her voice and looked at Sora. He was standing stone still, ignoring the battle around him.

"Sora?" Riku asked uneasily. A sense of foreboding filled him, and Riku knew that whatever Sora said next, it wouldn't be good.

"I can't…" Sora's voice trailed off and he was silent for a moment as if he was stuck. "The keyblade," he whispered. He looked up at Riku, his eyes wide and panicked. Riku was taken aback; he couldn't ever remember seeing Sora look like this. "I can't summon it," he said at last.

"Wha-?" Riku asked, and Kairi seemed just as dumbstruck as himself.

"I can't summon my keyblade!" Sora shouted, suddenly angry. He looked back down at his hand, at his empty hand where a keyblade should have been.

Riku wanted to say something, in fact, he felt he should say something, anything, but he couldn't spend any time thinking about this newest, and frightening, revelation. The creatures were still coming, and without Sora's help, Riku would be hard pressed to fight them all off. He had Kairi to help him, but she had something else she needed to do.

"Kairi, protect Sora," Riku said as he turned to face another enemy, this time a cat-like beast with a tail like a mace and spike all along it's body that looked like they would be very painful to touch.

There was a sharp intake of breath from behind Riku, and he could only assume it was from Sora.

"I can still fight," Sora insisted, and to prove his point an enemy that had been drawing in close to Riku was suddenly frozen in place with a burst of ice magic. "I can do this too," Sora said.

"Don't worry, Riku," Kairi said, but Riku could hear a lack of confidence in her voice. "Sora will be fine. We can trust him to watch our backs."

Riku gave a grim nod, refusing to give in to the feeling of hopelessness that was threating to consume him. If Sora had been able to fight at full strength, Riku could have said for sure that they would have been able to get through this situation. Even if it had been ridiculous to think so, simply having Sora by one's side was enough to make a person think that way.

It was different now though. Sora continued to support Riku and Kairi with his magic, but even then there was a limit to what he could really do, and Kairi wasn't a very skilled fighter yet, not that Riku could hold that against her. She had only recently begun learning to fight with her keyblade.

Riku could only focus on slaying as many of the creatures as possible to make the burden on his friends lighter, and hope they would get through this.

* * *

The night turned into a long, worry filled battle. Riku took the brunt of the attack with Kairi taking anything that got past him and Sora filling the cracks by ensuring they weren't overwhelmed by too many opponents at once. It was a workable way of fighting, but Kairi knew that someone would collapse before the battle was over, and when that happened everyone would fall.

Perhaps it was wrong of her to have these kinds of dark thoughts when her friends were doing their best, but Sora had fallen silent shortly after the start of the battle. The only sounds he muttered were the occasional words necessary for the spells he cast and nothing else. His lack of presence in the fight was disheartening, and even Riku seemed to be feeling it.

They had fought off a good number of the creatures, and only a handful or so remained. Despite the numbers of creatures they had defeated, there was no sign at all of their fallen foes. All traces of them disappeared as soon as the creatures were defeated. It was unnerving in a way, how they simply vanished with no fanfare whatsoever.

One of the fast, reptilian types slipped past Riku and headed straight for Sora. Kairi stepped in between them, but at that moment, her weary legs slowed for just a moment and she wasn't quite ready to defend the blow the creature delivered with its vicious claws.

Kairi raised her keyblade to defend, but with her lack of proper footing and her tired body, the creature was able to disarm her. Kairi watched as her keyblade spun away through the air, tumbling down to the sand. It lay there a moment before it disappeared in a flash of light.

"No!" Kairi cried out desperately as the lizard-beast raised a fierce set of claws to strike at her with.

"Kairi!" Sora shouted in desperation, but he was too late, there was nothing he could do to stop the attack.

Kairi was certain this was the end when a sudden flash of brilliant red cut across her vision, and the creature before her burst in fire.

She stared at the now smoldering mess that would soon disappear. _What happened?_ She wondered. _That couldn't have been Sora just now…?_

"Are you alright?" a familiar voice suddenly called out from the right.

Kairi looked over and spotted two familiar figures, each taking care to dispatch those creatures nearest them.

"Axel! King Mickey!" Sora shouted, recognizing them even faster than Kairi did.

A red flash appeared in Axel's hand as his keyblade reappeared and Kairi realized that he was the one who had saved her. She frowned a little. She didn't exactly dislike Axel, but he had kidnapped her once before and tried to turn Sora into a Heartless, but from the way Sora seemed happy to see him it seemed that he had forgiven the former Nobody for that.

"We'll take care of these over here for you," Mickey said as he brandished his keyblade, and eliminated two more of the remaining monsters.

Axel rushed forward, heading for one of the final two creatures, the last of which was currently engaged by Riku. He was fast, and with his keyblade he made a diving strike down the center of the monster's head, dividing it neatly in half. The creature fell without a sound and vanished.

Kairi watched with such fascination that she hardly noticed when Riku finished off his own opponent. In a moment, the battle was over and the beach was silent once again.

Kairi dropped to her knees, wondering if all battles were like that. Had her two friends really been fighting like this the entire time? Kairi felt a twinge of guilt. She hadn't been able to help them at all before this, and she had even been a hindrance when dealing with the Nobodies of the Organization.

"Is everyone okay?" Mickey asked as he and Axel headed towards them.

"Yeah," Riku replied. "Just barely though. You couldn't have had better timing."

"What can I say?" Axel said flippantly, "I just live for dramatic entrances."

Riku smiled and then stopped as if remembering something. He looked behind him and Kairi followed his gaze. Sora was standing behind them, hanging his head. She couldn't see his expression, but Kairi was certain it wasn't anything good.

"What's wrong?" Axel asked after a moment of awkward silence.

"It's Sora," Kairi replied, feeling a little awkward, "He…" she couldn't bring herself to say it.

"He can't summon his keyblade," Riku finished ruthlessly. "He couldn't use it during the battle at all."

Mickey and Axel looked sharply at Sora, and then at each other.

"Sora, are you alright?" Mickey asked. His expressive eyes narrowed in worry, and his tail twitched anxiously.

"I'm fine," Sora said with a cheerful smile. It was convincing enough that Kairi wanted to be believe him, but she knew there was no way he was fine.

"Hmm…this is very troubling," Mickey said.

"Your Majesty, why are you and Axel here?" Riku asked. "Did you know about the attack?"

"We met a weird guy who said some shady stuff," Axel said in a careless voice. "The king here was a bit worried so we decided to come check it out."

"A weird guy?" Sora asked.

"Hmm? Sora do you know something?" Kairi asked as everyone turned to look at Sora.

"Well, I wouldn't really say so," Sora replied, "but I did have a weird dream earlier. I saw those things that attacked us, and there was a person there as well."

"A dream?" Axel muttered. "Haven't we had enough of those?"

"Master Yen Sid sent us out to learn about these creatures, apparently they've been appearing in various worlds, but we don't know what they are yet," Mickey explained.

"Take me with you," Riku said. He stepped forward, away from Kairi and Sora. "I want to help you figure this out."

"I want to go too," Sora added as he also stepped forward.

"I don't think you should go," Riku said as he turned back to face Sora. "You should stay here with Kairi."

_Huh?_ Kairi stared at Riku. She was going to be left behind again? Why? Sora and Riku were always leaving her behind. She wasn't incapable of defending herself anymore, she could fight too, so why?

"I think that's for the best," Mickey said while Kairi was lost her thoughts.

Kairi opened her mouth to protest, but Sora beat her to it.

"No way," he insisted. "I can still help. Let me come too."

Mickey shook his head. "You can't Sora," he said. "It's better if you stay here for now."

"I'll be back soon," Riku said with a small, reassuring smile to Kairi and Sora, and then he headed for where Mickey and Axel were waiting.

Axel raised his hand a black portal appeared out of nowhere, a passage to the corridors of darkness that ran between the worlds. Was that what they had used to get here?

Mickey and Axel entered the dark doorway without hesitation and Riku followed, looking only vaguely worried as he entered the darkness.

Kairi took a step forward and stood next to Sora. He was shaking, and Kairi was surprised to see a look of anger on his face.

"Sora?" Kairi asked, worried about the dark expression on his face.

"Kairi," Sora said in a firm voice without looking at her. "I'm going to follow them. What about you?"

Kairi stared at Sora in surprise, and then she smiled. This was more like the Sora she knew.

"Yeah, let's go surprise them," Kairi replied. "They'll regret not taking us with them."

"Hurry, let's go before it closes," Sora said.

Sora reached out and grabbed Kairi's hand and began to drag her toward the doorway. Kairi willingly followed, but just before they reached the doorway, Sora let go and entered alone. Kairi followed close behind him, and stepped though the solid pane of darkness that stood on the beach.

Entering through the darkness was like being doused with a bucket of ice water. The sensation lasted only a moment, but it was such an intense feeling that it lingered on in Kairi's mind even as she headed for the warm light on the other side of the door.

Kairi was in the corridor of darkness for only a moment, and she soon stepped into the warm light of Yen Sid's office, a place she had recently become familiar with. As she stepped through, she was greeted with the surprised stares of the four people present in the room.

"Kairi?" Riku asked, his aqua eyes wide in surprise. "Why are you here?"

"I won't let you leave me behind again," Kairi said, finally voicing her opinion. "Sora and I decided to follow you."

"Sora?" Yen Sid asked. "He did not come through the doorway."

Surprised, Kairi looked back only to find that the doorway was gone, and Sora was nowhere to be seen.

"What?" Kairi gasped, "But he entered before me. Where did he go?"

"This is becoming a very disturbing issue," Yen Sid said in somber voice. "I don't know where Sora has gone to, but I fear he may be in trouble."


End file.
